Does Your Brother Know?
by choirhawk12
Summary: There's a REASON why Charles always orders Raven a soda instead of alcohol... Loosely based on the ABBA song, I own nothing.


There were really only two people in his life that Erik Lehnsherr truly enjoyed being around: his best friend Charles Xavier, and Charles's sister, Raven. The trio did practically everything together; and that included going out almost every other night to the local pubs around Oxford.

Charles had no problem bringing his little sister along, but Erik always felt sorry for dragging her with them and having Charles treat her like a little kid when she clearly just wanted to have fun as well. While he and Charles were having a good time drinking scotch and beer as if it were water, Raven would sit and pout over her soda. Charles never allowed her to drink, even though the pubs around Oxford didn't enforce any type of underage drinking rule unless someone became rowdy or had one-too-many already.

So Raven would sit and watch her brother and Erik drink and play pool with the other students, wishing for even the smallest sip of alcohol to make the night a little more pleasurable for her. Several times he has told Charles that she was fully capable of drinking just as much as they could (the proof being the two drinking contests in which she beat Erik—even though he would say he _let _her win), but the ever-responsible Charles forced Erik to slide his near empty glasses over to Raven on several occasions. He didn't think anything of it at the time, but for Raven, those few times along with the secretive smirks Erik would give her as he passed his glass along, meant a whole lot more than her brother's best friend just being nice to her.

On one night out, Charles had excused himself to the restroom giving Erik the opportunity to slide his glass over to Raven. The look on her face was priceless. As she quickly drained the glass of its contents, Charles returned to their booth, a pained expression twisting his features. Erik immediately leaned forward, but held back from showing anything other than concern for his best friend in public.

"Charles," he started, trying to keep the deep worry out of his voice, "are you feeling alright?" The other man tried to smile, but it ended up as more of a grimace.

"I feel fine, Erik," Charles answered, though even in the dim and smoky room Erik could see a pale trace of green make its way across his friend's face. Erik knew that Charles was lying, but said nothing to press the matter. Within seconds, however, Charles hurriedly excused himself again.

Raven and Erik stood immediately in case one or the other needed to go after him, but seeing as there was no way Raven could enter the restroom, Erik left their table to check on Charles leaving Raven alone. A few minutes passed before Raven noticed that Charles had barely touched his scotch and Erik still hadn't returned from the bathroom. She took a quick scan of the bar just in case either of the two decided to mysteriously reappear. It was almost too perfect. Carefully, Raven reached for Charles's glass and lifted it to her lips. The light brown liquid was warm and burned on its way down her throat. _Freedom,_ she thought satisfied. Quickly, she peeked over the rim to check for any sign of Erik, but he still had not come out of the restroom.

_Maybe, I should just finish the drink, _she thought raising the glass again. _I mean, Charles is probably too sick to notice, anyway, and it would be just a complete waste of money if he doesn't drink it, so I'm practically doing him a favor. _Without another thought she took another gulp. A warm feeling began to take hold of her. It started out as a tingle under her skin until she had finished the drink and it moved to her arms and legs.

It felt too good to let go, but unfortunately she knew that Charles and Erik would soon emerge, and it would be suspicious if her brother came back to the table expecting a full glass only to find it emptied.

Raven checked the hallway to the restrooms one more time before making her way to the bar to order another scotch to replace the one she had finished. Once she was back at the table, she took a few sips to make sure it was somewhere around the level that she had started with. A few minutes later, Charles and Erik came out of the restroom. Charles's arm was draped around Erik's broad shoulders, his face pale and sweaty.

"Charles?" Raven asked cautiously as any concerned sister would do. "Is he going to be alright?" she asked looking up at Erik who was trying not to lose his grip on his friend.

"He'll be fine," he replied trying to fish out Charles's car keys from his pocket. "It's just a little food poisoning from the oysters we had for lunch today. I guess he got a bad batch." Raven nodded and put Charles's right arm over her shoulders. The car ride back to the apartment that all three of them shared was pretty silent except for a few whimpers every now and again from Charles in the backseat.

After getting Charles inside and into bed, Erik and Raven retreated to the living room. It was quiet for a few minutes before Erik suddenly got up and went into the kitchen. Raven watched as he came back with not one, but two beers, fresh from the refrigerator and already opened. Raven did nothing but stare at it for a few seconds before taking it and hastily drinking it. The buzz she got from the scotch earlier was starting to wear off, but soon it would be replaced by another one.

And so the two sat on the couch, drinking beer and talking like old friends would normally do. It wasn't until the fourth beer—or was it the fifth?—that Raven began to feel tipsy. Erik sat by silently as she went over the ancient record player in the corner and put on some record from the sixties. They both knew what her limit was before things got out of control, but neither of them really seemed to care at the moment. The warm feelings that Raven had had earlier returned in full force as the song caused her to sway and twirl around the room.

"Raven, how much did you have to drink?" Erik asked with a chuckle. He knew perfectly well how much she had to drink, but it was fun seeing her like this—so free from the way her brother wanted her to be. This was the real Raven.

She giggled and said, "I don't know, how much did _you_ have?" She giggled again and Erik just smiled affectionately and took another sip of his beer. As the second song started to play, Raven's smile became mischievous. She walked lazily towards the kitchen and pulled out a chair to reach the top cabinet. When she finally came down, in her hands she held a half empty bottle of scotch and two tumblers.

"Let's play a game," she suggested. She opened the bottle and filled the glasses, handing one to Erik.

"Alright, what kind of game?" Perhaps this was going a bit too far, but Erik was slightly tipsy himself and wanted to know what kind of game Raven wanted to play.

"Every time the next song says a certain word, one of us has to drink. First person who drains their glass has to do a shot. Got it?" Erik nodded and the third song on the record began to play. Once they had decided on their words—for Erik, "love", and for Raven, "baby"—they began to play.

Unfortunately half-way through the song Raven had already finished her glass and did her required shot. By the end of the game, she had lost twice and was completely drunk. Almost immediately as the next song began, Raven pulled Erik to his feet and pulled him into her forcing him to dance.

"Erik," she slurred, "do you love me?" The man didn't know what to say to her. Of course he loved her, she was like a sister to him, but something told him that wasn't what she meant. But that's what he told her, anyway.

"Of course I love you, Raven, you're like my little sister, too."

"No, silly," she giggled again, "I mean, do you _love _me? Or at least _like me_?" She started to run her hands over Erik's chest for emphasis, but that did nothing but cause him to cringe slightly. "I've seen the way you look at me, Erik. I know that you've been desperately trying to hide your feelings, but it's okay to tell me now." She began to push him over to the couch where Erik fell back into the seat.

Things were getting too out of control. Had things always been like this when Raven was drunk? As Erik thought about it more, those two times that Charles had allowed the drinking contests, he had always ushered his sister straight to her room and into bed right after she had claimed victory. _And this was probably why,_ he realized as Raven climbed onto the couch as well.

"Does Charles know that you act like this when you're drunk? Because then I can see why he orders you a soda instead of alcohol." He tried to fend her off, but Raven kept a surprisingly strong grip on his shoulder.

"You don't have to hide anymore, Erik. It's perfectly fine as long as we don't tell Charles." As she leaned in to kiss him, Erik blurted out the only thing that came to his mind.

"IminlovewithCharles!" Raven's face blanked. She slowly backed away leaving Erik breathing heavily.

"What did you just say?" _Oh great, now I've done it, _Erik thought. _Please let her not remember any of this in the morning._

"I said that-that I'm…" he sighed before continuing. "I said that I'm in love with-with Charles. And I really like you, you're like a sister to me, but I'm afraid that's all we can ever be. I'm sorry if I led you on."

"Oh," was all Raven said in reply. "I see, now." And with that, she got off the couch and left for her room. Once inside, she assessed her feelings, even if they were a little muddled from the alcohol. So Erik didn't love her after all. _I mean, what girl wouldn't be interested in him? Or what _guy_ for that matter. _She placed herself beneath her bed covers and lay there for a while until the same mischievous smirk crept onto her face. Life was never going to be the same for any of them, and Erik and Charles didn't even know.


End file.
